Elements in Doug Aitken’s house in Venice, California, blur the line between inside and out. “The goal was to create a warm, organic modernism that’s also perceptual and hallucinatory.”

Silk-screened walls mimic hedges growing outside the windows; the corner window is amazing. Microphones integrated into the foundation of the house amplify the sounds of the moving earth and sea. Stairs can be musically played as well as tables that alternate as sonic tables that can be played like a xylophone. A kaleidoscopic staircase is constructed of angled mirrors, reflecting the sun’s movement illuminating the interiors.

In an exclusive VIDEO produced by Gonzalo Amat for The New York Times, Aitken, with the help of his girlfriend Gemma Ponsa and a few of their friends, activate its more hidden charms, revealing that it’s a house that sounds as cool as it looks.

NY Times Style Magazine ↓

Acid Modernism: it’s an apt term to characterize a modest, functional home where the ground-floor walls and curtains have been silk-screened to simulate the hedges growing outside the windows, the sky-lighted staircase is lined with angled mirrors that turn the passage into a dazzling kaleidoscope and the light fixture that illuminates the vintage Western-Holly kitchen stove looks as if it’s wearing a toupee. The toupee is actually a cluster of air plants, tropical ferns that feed off the moisture from Ponsa’s cooking.

An 18th-century flat in Barcelona finds new life at the hands of architects Benedetta Tagliabue and Enric Miralles of EMBT. The dining room, with original tilework on the floors and walls, open to the backyard terrace. Original restored structures and furniture such as a 1938 butterfly chair by Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy, and a 1983 TMC floor lamp by Spanish designer Miguel Milá are complemented with modern elements.

Green patina walls, painted murals, architectural moldings and octopus chandeliers paired with thrift and antique store furniture come together at the home of artist Adam Wallacavage. Part Victorian, part Baroque and all Jack Cousteau.

Designed in 1969 by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, who went on to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2006, the Sao Paulo residence is a stellar example of Paulista, the local school of brutalism that he championed in the 1950’s and ’60’s.

Kismet Tile by Tracey Reinberg is cement tile crafted according to traditional materials and methods but with bold, modern motifs. Here, Hexagon #8 in Green Tonal with several Hot Orange accents is used in a garden in Ojai, California.

Château de la Goujeonnerie was built in 1872 by the architect Arsene Charier in Loge Fougereuse, Vendee, France. The table in the formal dining-room was once in a Paris library. It is now painted and mirrored, surrounded by antique chairs covered in green mohair. From the mirrored ceiling hang four identical chandeliers, a rare find from a church.

Author Emily Chalmer combines retro and flea-market style furniture in an array of colors and prints in her apartment living room.

Home of architect, interior designer and art dealer Colin Radcliffe and his partner, model Angela Dunn, pays homage to the class and brass of 1960s Hollywood. Gorgeous brown and gold Portoro marble basins can be found in the bathrooms.